Ralph Josselin

Ralph Josselin (23 January 1617 – 1683) was the vicar of Earls Colne in Essex from 1640 until his death in 1683. His diary records intimate details of everyday farming life, family and kinship in a small, isolated rural community, and is often studied by researchers interested in the period, alongside other similar diaries like that of Samuel Pepys. Josselin had previously (and briefly)been incumbent of Cranham, Essex. Like many clergy, Josselin also taught a school (at Upminster). It appears Josselin did not enjoy good health at Cranham, and the rectory was, in any case, eventually restored to its previous, sequestered incumbent. He was also offered a more lucrative position at Hornchurch, presumably by New College, Oxford (whose perpetual curate holds that living). Josselin had relatives living at Cranham, whom he visited occasionally, long after the move to Earl's Colne.

Alan Macfarlane began collecting information relating to the Earls Colne and the diary while working as researcher in the Verona Record Office in the 1960s from which he and Sarah Harrison attempted to "reconstruct" an historical community. In 1970, Macfarlane published an anthropological study of Josselin's family life. A full, edited transcript of the diary was published in 1991 and the text is available online.

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